Last month in Denver, Jeff Zidell asked me what my daily blog reads were and strangely enough I didn’t quite know because it’s so habitual, I have a ton of subscriptions in my Google Reader because I’ll look for tips of things to write about in the most unlikely of places, I actually had to think about the question of which blogs I prioritize, which are my first reads, which ones I actually anticipate reading.

The question sort of stuck with me and I’ve paid more attention to which blog posts I click first to read, which ones I actually enjoy. So I thought I’d share with y’all my take, in case it introduces you to blogs that you’d be interested in checking out.

I know I’ll ruffle some feathers with my comments on these blogs, remember that these are the ones that I really like and read, and of course goodness knows some readers will have plenty to criticize about this blog, but I share what I think about mileage programs or anything else I recommend, why would blogs be any different?

Here are my primary reads:

1. One Mile at a Time. “Lucky” is my first read, when he writes a post I instantly check it out. Though I’m disappointed when it’s a “reader photo” you’re supposed to guess the location of, I feel cheated because it’s not an informative or entertaining post about travel. This blog probably tracks most closely with my own interests and tastes in travel — good deals, mileage redemption, international first class with the occasional business class segment thrown in, elite status. That doesn’t match everyone’s fancy, but it’s my number one.
2. Frugal Travel Guy and The Points Guy. Both write extensively and accessibly though much more geared towards newbies, which means I think they make great contributions but their posts are less likely to teach me something new. Still, they both point to occasional deals that I hadn’t seen elsewhere, so you’ll see me cite them occasionally when I flag a deal if I discovered it with one of them first. In both cases, I wish their posts seemed a bit less oriented towards earning commissions from credit card signups, although knowing both Rick and Brian I also trust their posts completely — they don’t offer advice they don’t believe because of the commissions, they do appear a bit overly commercial for my tastes sometimes.
3. Million Mile Secrets and Mommy Points. Two newcomers to miles, points, and travel blogging, I’ve found that both blogs offer something unique. Daraius will often publish the ‘secret’ techniques that are discussed in mileage forums or sometimes only obliquely referenced in those forums, with good explanations that the world can understand. There’s even the occasional rumbling that his doing so will ‘kill a deal’ which often strikes me odd because he doesn’t have the same sort of traffic that a site like Flyertalk does, where the deals are often already being discussed and where there’s a great deal of monitoring being done by the mileage programs already. His explanation of the ‘two browser trick’ to get multiple Citibank 75,000 mile American Airlines bonuses for credit card signups hardly killed that bonus, for instance. Meanwhile, Mommy Points is a great writer and offers wonderful explanations of techniques that can appear dense at first but are really accessible when broken down simply. Plus she has a tremendous enthusiasm for the subject.

There are several other blogs whose feeds I subscribe to as well. I read them, find them worthwhile, some don’t post as often so I find it especially useful to be subscribed through a reader rather than going straight to their websites as a result. You’ll find that I cull them and share the best of their tips here, always appropriately crediting of course, but they’re amongst my ‘sources’:

• Live and Let’s Fly. The posts are a bit irregular and I don’t always read through the trip reports (now I know how some of you feel when I write trip reports – hah!), but Matthew does know the ins and outs of the programs so I often much value the more ‘inside baseball’ posts he makes, plus I invariably agree with him on airport security…
• The Perrin Post. Conde Nast‘s Wendy Perrin is excellent, her writing is both accessible to the general public while still being spot on. She doesn’t blog enough, which is why subscribing to her RSS feed is a must, I wouldn’t otherwise know when she’s written something new.
• Mileopoly. Another one that’s a must for an RSS feed, when Randy Petersen chooses to blog it’s almost always useful, his blog was where I first discovered the Intercontinental Hotels Friends and Family rate for everyone. But he posts rarely..
• Online Travel Review. Jared Blank doesn’t post as much as I’d like, or on super killer mileage and travel deals as often as I’d like, but when he does they’re clear-headed and often different deals than those I’m finding elsewhere.
• Priority Club Insider. Usually the first to know and post when new PointBreaks deals are out, and great at flagging various otherwise unknown, secret, and sometimes stackable promotions. Posts rarely, but usually worthwhile, especially for anyone who stays regularly at Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, etc. properties. 
• Wandering Aramean. Many of his recent posts could be considered obscure (JAL seatmaps, American Airlines pilot retirements), and Seth and I often much disagree on things, but they’re always well thought out so I always know whyI disagree with him. And occasionally I learn something…

While we’re on the subjects of reads and feeds, it’s worth noting that you can follow me on Twitter (@garyleff), and the blog has a new email subscription feature as well, just enter your email address in the box on the left hand side of the page. From 2003 through 2006 I had a daily email digest, with several thousand subscribers. That list went moribund, and one of the most frequent requests that I get is to have email distribution of my posts, presumably for those who aren’t actively using an RSS reader but don’t want to have to remember to check back to the blog daily. If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any of the deals and mileage advice, you can sign up and have posts delivered to your inbox.

Which of your top reads am I missing?